Send2Press Newswire

State Government Alert: Kentucky Defies Big Tobacco Lobbyists' Pressure by Seeking A Flat Tax on Cigarette Sales

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:10:00 GMT

DALLAS, TX - April 26 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- StatesOnTheTake.com announced today that Kentucky State Government officials could withdraw from the Master Settlement Agreement ("MSA"), despite fierce opposition from out-of-state, Big Tobacco lobbyists. The MSA was the original "Stealth Cartel," created under the guise of a "settlement" between Big Tobacco and the 46 state signatories.

Kentuckians and local politicians are united in opposing how the Bluegrass State's cigarette revenues are unilaterally usurped by the Master Settlement Agreement. (MSA). Kentucky government officials continue to advance a flat tax initiative that is more representative of Kentucky cigarette sales than the MSA dictates.

As StatesOnTheTake.com founder S. George Alfonso revealed, "The MSA-spawned Stealth Cartel partnership between state government and Big Tobacco continues to tilt the free market playing field in ways most beneficial to them. In other words, Citizen Consumers and other independent businesses continue to be shortchanged."

The MSA requires the Commonwealth's cigarette revenue be transferred to other larger, more populated signatory states of the MSA, like New York State. Under the MSA, tobacco companies pay about $4.00 per carton into the MSA settlement fund, which is then allocated back to the participating 46 states.

Despite the actual number of packs sold in Kentucky being close to the number sold in New York, Kentucky receives only $1.58 for each $4.00 per carton payment (a net loss of $2.42). Conversely, New York receives $12.21 for each $4.00 per carton payment (a net gain of $8.21) or a 305% return.

The MSA, for these reasons and others, continues to be the focus of substantial ongoing litigation, everything from Constitutional challenges via the Competitive Enterprise Institute to private individual lawsuits. Such shaky legal footing casts considerable doubt upon future payments from the MSA agreement (whether negative or surplus payments) especially in States like Kentucky that prefer a flat tax instead.

The Stealth Cartel says NO to the Commonwealth Keeping its own Cigarette Revenues:

The number one Stealth Cartel -- Big Tobacco and their Comrades in Collusion within State Government, oppose the Commonwealth of Kentucky keeping the money its due from cigarette sales.

Well-financed Big Tobacco lobbyists are pressuring the Commonwealth's legislators not to level the economic playing field through a flat tax. A flat tax would help Kentucky keep additional millions of dollars from the cigarette revenue generated in the Bluegrass State.

Big Tobacco's army of lawyers are already threatening suits against the Commonwealth, claiming that the proposed flat tax would result in double-taxation payments under the MSA, an outcome that Judge Roger Crittenden has recently addressed as not applicable or correct under the MSA as a story in Tobacco Industry News recently reported.

Kentucky: Take Back Your Revenues - and Your State:

StatesOnTheTake.com wants to expose the threat our free market economy faces from Stealth Cartels such as the MSA, which often operate "under the media radar," on a state-by-state political level.

As S. George Alfonso revealed, "The Citizen Consumers of Kentucky are at a crossroads: that can sit and do nothing or they can rise up and take back their state from Big Tobacco lobbyists and the Stealth Cartel they represent. The logical outcome is to change the law to recover and keep all of their rightfully earned cigarette revenue."

StatesOnTheTake.com invites the Citizen Consumers of the Commonwealth of Kentucky to sign the petition targeting the Commonwealth's representatives. Add your voice to other Kentuckians and demand Kentucky keep Kentucky's money, rather than continuing to unilaterally fork over millions each year to New York and other states, under the guise and supervision of Big Tobacco and their lobbyists.

For more information on Kentucky dropping out of the MSA and to sign the petition that will be sent to all Commonwealth representatives, visit the political watchdog site http://www.StatesOnTheTake.com or call (800) 598-7181.

For additional information about this news release, ontact: S. George Alfonso, Founder, StatesOnTheTake.com, (800) 598-7181, info @ StatesOnTheTake.com.

Medicare Patients and Care Providers Fear Dire Consequences of Medicare Reform Bill

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 11:04:00 GMT

Concerned Citizens Plan to Protest Pending Legislation outside Offices of House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas in Bakersfield on Tuesday

BAKERSFIELD, CA (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- A grass-roots effort to focus attention on disturbing elements of the Medicare reform legislation some Medicare beneficiaries and patient-care advocates call "frightening" and "disastrous" will begin with an organized protest outside the Bakersfield offices of House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) on Tuesday, Jan. 24. Last Chance for Patient Choice (a 527 not-for-profit organization) plans to launch its nationwide advocacy effort on the eve of the final budget reconciliation bill vote (S. 1932) by the U.S. House of Representatives that will probably occur during the first week of February.

"We're beginning our effort in Bakersfield because we're particularly concerned about certain provisions in the bill inserted by Thomas himself," explains John Gallagher, vice president-government relations for The VGM Group (www.vgm.com), an Iowa-based member service organization to which thousands of independent home medical equipment providers belong. "We don't think he fully realizes how much his proposed legislation will hurt older Americans who depend so much on medical equipment and services." The VGM Group is the driving force behind the creation of Last Chance for Patient Choice.

About The Issue

Essentially, the provisions Thomas has inserted into the bill eliminate the current option available to older and disabled Americans on Medicare that allows them to continue to rent their home medical equipment, including that used for oxygen therapy. "Beneficiaries choose to rent rather than purchase because renting allows worry-free, professional maintenance of complex medical equipment and lowers costs to seniors," reports Gallagher. "It is unconscionably unfair, dangerous, and irresponsible for the government to literally force our senior Americans to take title of complex medical equipment after an arbitrarily capped rental period." www.lastchanceforpatients.org

Oxygen equipment is essential for the 1 million Americans who suffer from respiratory illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and require oxygen therapy to survive.

Oxygen is a federal legend drug and the necessary devices and equipment are prescription-only elements. Medicare beneficiary advocates are concerned that transferring the burden of maintenance and repair of sophisticated oxygen technologies to patients presents a serious risk to their safety and care.

More Problems with Provisions Inserted by Representative Bill Thomas

"Bill Thomas also supports a new law that will require Medicare beneficiaries to be treated by a restricted group of providers selected by the government -- not by the patient or the doctor -- for one reason alone: their cut-rate services," adds John Gallagher. "This law will seriously compromise the quality of beneficiary care in all applicable areas -- from wheelchairs to hospital beds; from home nursing care to prescription drugs; from doctors to hospitals and everything in between."

The Home-care Industry Response

Oxygen patients have not asked for any more "control" over their equipment. Long-term oxygen patients cannot walk to their mailboxes without becoming breathless, let alone handle a lot of extra responsibility for maintaining medical equipment they don't understand. Long-term oxygen users are generally very satisfied with their home-care providers as measured by patient satisfaction surveys.

Beneficiaries, who are often older and/or handicapped, do not know when servicing is necessary. Many cannot even begin to follow a manufacturer's warranty or recommended maintenance schedule. They have no exposure to product recalls mandated by the FDA and would not know how to comply with a recall if needed. Oxygen is an FDA-regulated drug produced from FDA-regulated medical devices. Home-care providers ensure that they are maintained regularly. "Does Congress really want to put frail seniors at risk of death or re-hospitalization due to low oxygen levels?" asks VGM Group Founder and CEO Van Miller. "We don't think they do, so we're doing our best to make sure the American public does understand what's going on with the future of their health care."

Homecare Industry Attorney Voices Concern about Scope of Federal Powers and Inevitable Expansion -- Doctors Next?

"I am especially concerned about the unbelievably broad range of almost dictatorial powers that Mr. Thomas's legislation will put into the hands of the Secretary of Health and Human Services," reports Jim Walsh, president of VGM Management, Ltd. and general counsel to The VGM Group. "Furthermore, once the federal government gains final control over the HME sector of health-care industry, what's to stop Washington bureaucrats from taking away the patient's right to choose their own hospitals, pharmacies, home health-care providers, assisted care facilities, therapists and even physicians? What will stop the bureaucracy from growing, once they've tasted blood?"

Walsh asserts that Thomas's "'competitive acquisition' legislation is probably seen by him as nothing more than a thinly-veiled first step in a concerted effort to eventually convert America's traditional free choice health-care system into a government-controlled, two-tier system with Medicare beneficiaries receiving the worst service and cheapest equipment from a small group of government-sponsored cut-rate providers via a cleverly spun scheme that has been purposefully misnamed 'competitive bidding'."

Bakersfield Just the Beginning -- More Local Protests Planned

John Gallagher reports that Last Chance for Patient Choice already has more multimedia patient advocacy campaigns and protests planned for other congressional districts whose representatives are avowed, open supporters of legislative initiatives doomed to punish Medicare beneficiaries with undue financial burdens and limited access to quality home health care.

New Movement To End U.S. Occupation Of Iraq Launches National Counting The Cost Event May 15

Fri, 06 May 2005 10:52:00 GMT

PHILADELPHIA, PA - May 6 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) -- People from around the country are signing up at www.countingthecost.org to wear numbers symbolizing the over 100,000 civilians and soldiers who died because of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Motivated by new information on the numbers of deaths in Iraq, and the lack of national discussion, participants from Alaska to Arizona, Boston to Baltimore, are signing up to participate in a simple but dramatic gesture. On May 15th across the country, Counting the Cost participants will wear their numbers and demonstrate - in silent vigils to large public die-ins.

Some individuals will wear their numbers to church or graduations. Some will simply explain the significance of the numbers to their neighbors. All Counting the Cost participants will stand together in their belief that the U.S. occupation of Iraq must end now.

The Counting the Cost campaign intends to use any surplus funds from registration contributions for humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians and anti-war organizing in the U.S.

The efforts of Counting the Cost were inspired by the Johns Hopkins study published last October. It concludes that over 100,000 people have died as a result of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. (For the complete study see http://www.countingthecost.org/images/Mortality-in-Iraq.pdf)

"The public has been led to believe the war was nearly cost-free," said Philadelphian Josh Markel, one Counting the Cost originator. "The Hopkins study got a lot of coverage in other countries, but it has been largely ignored here in the U.S."

The event mourns U.S. soldiers, Iraqis, coalition military, aid workers, UN staff, journalists, and contractors dead during the war. "They will try to forget the faces, the memory, the boots of all of these dear souls, and the 100,000 Iraqis who lie in their own land," said Celeste Zappala, of Gold Star Families for Peace, whose son Sherwood Baker was killed in Iraq on April 26, 2004.

"The government has prohibited photographs of the caskets with the military dead. General Tommy Franks said 'we don't do body counts' of the Iraqi dead. We believe that the U.S. people should know the war's true cost and demand an end," said Mary Day Kent, Director of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, one of the sponsors for the Counting the Cost project.

www.countingthecost.org